Perception in Biological News

Elephant shark genome sequence leads to discovery of color perception in deep-sea fish

The elephant shark, a primitive deep-sea fish that belongs to the oldest living family of jawed vertebrates, can see color much like humans can. This discovery, published in the March 2009 issue of Genome Research , may enhance scientists' understanding of how color vision evolved in early ve...

Rice psychologist explores perception of fear in human sweat

When threatened, many animals release chemicals as a warning signal to members of their own species, who in turn react to the signals and take action. Research by Rice University psychologist Denise Chen suggests a similar phenomenon occurs in humans. Given that more than one sense is typically in...

'Mind's eye' influences visual perception

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery--what we see with the "mind's eye"--directly impacts our visual perception. The research was published online June 26...

Saving face with a baby-face? Shape of CEO's face affects public perception

When a corporation has a public relations crisis, the news media splash photos of the company's CEO around the world. According to new research in the Journal of Consumer Research the shape of the CEO's face evokes judgments about the person and the situation. "A company can control what face i...

Genetic variant linked to odor perception

DURHAM, N.C. Why the same sweaty man smells pleasant to one person and repellant to another comes down to the smellers genes. Duke University Medical Center researchers demonstrated that genetic variants of odor receptors within the nose determine how a particular odor is perceived. The resear...

Altered perception of reward in human cocaine addiction

People addicted to cocaine have an impaired ability to perceive rewards and exercise control due to disruptions in the brain's reward and control circuits, according to a series of brain-mapping studies and neuropsychological tests conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National La...

Face perception is modulated by sexual orientation

New research indicates that an area of the brain thought to act in reward circuitry may represent a phase in visual processing during which sexual orientation modulates how we perceive individual faces. The findings are reported by Felicitas Kranz and Alumit Ishai of the University of Zurich. Of...

Cracking the perception code

The brain may interpret the information it receives from sensory neurons using a code more complicated than scientists previously thought, according to new research from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. By studying how monkeys perceive a vibrating obje...

Color perception is not in the eye of the beholder: It's in the brain

First-ever images of living human retinas have yielded a surprise about how we perceive our world. Researchers at the University of Rochester have found that the number of color-sensitive cones in the human retina differs dramatically among people--by up to 40 times--yet people appear to perceive c...

1 in 6 health workers won't report in flu pandemic -- study by Ben-Gurion U. researchers

..., were 31 times more likely to respond to work in an emergency than those who perceived the threat low and had low levels of confidence. Workers whose perception of the threat was "low" but who strongly believed in the importance of their job were 18 times more likely to say they "would respond" compared to tho...

Airway cells use 'tasting' mechanism to detect and clear harmful substances

...hese cellular structures are linked. "On the tongue, bitter substances trigger taste cells to stimulate neurons, which then evoke a response -- the perception of a bitter taste. In contrast, the airway cells appear to use a different mechanism that does not require nerves," said Alok Shah, a UI graduate stud...

PRS And EmSense Partner To Integrate Bio-Sensory Measures In Packaging Research Studies

..., July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week at the IIR Shopper Insights Conference, perception Research Services International (PRS) and EmSense Corporation announced the...esearch.com " target="_new"> jchapman@prsresearch.com . About perception Research Services International Established in 1972, PRS' mission is t...

Happier, healthier, more productive hens on omega-3?

...ternum (keel) are common, causing pain, preventing important behaviours and leading to an increase in infection rate. Chickens possess sensitive pain perception mechanisms and can suffer from chronic pain. Constraints on movement due to fractures may last for many weeks, resulting in restricted access to f...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- May 27, 2009

...alt particles so that the tongue perceives their taste more quickly. Other researchers are exploring oil-based salt emulsions that provide an enhanced perception of saltiness while using less salt. No one strategy seems to work for every food and beverage, the article notes, but help is on the way. ARTICLE ...

A bad performance is better than no performance at all

... The learning of birdsong resembles the learning of speech in humans. Crucial for the process are acoustic perception and the ability to produce sound. Social isolation leads to a disturbed vocal development both in humans and in birds. When children grow up without c...

Society for Prevention Research Meeting in Washington, D.C., May 27-29, 2009

...ften comes up when policy makers talk about laws establishing drinking age minimums and family practices associated with alcohol use. A commonly held perception among Americans is that European youth tend to drink less alcohol and experience fewer negative consequences associated with alcohol use than teens in...

The neurobiology of musicality related to the intrinsic attachment behavior?

...The results suggest that the neurobiology of music perception and production is related to the pathways affectin...n. Thus, it is justified to hypothesize that music perception and creativity in music are linked to the same phe...r the first time in the molecular level that music perception has an attachment creating impact, says Liisa Ukko...

Using 'dominance' to explain dog behavior is old hat

...us and likely to make behaviours worse. Instructing owners to eat before their dog or go through doors first will not influence the dog's overall perception of the relationship merely teach them what to expect in these specific situations. Much worse, techniques such as pinning the dog to the floor, grab...

Neuroscientists discover long-term potentiation in the olfactory bulb

...abstract concepts, such as the shape of human faces, in the visual system or melodies in the auditory system. The brain areas related to our conscious perception of the world are presumably at the top of pyramid. However, the Case Western Reserve University researchers found that the brain circuit had the ab...

Laughing hyenas, wailing levees, the sound of cheese and blaring bagpipes

... a little bit early and, evolutionarily, it doesn't cost much," says Neuhoff. The talk "Strength and cardiovascular fitness predict time-to-arrival perception of looming sounds" (4aPP7) by John Nuehoff is at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 21. Abstract: http://asa.aip.org/web2/asa/abstracts/search.may09/asa840....

New findings in taste and smell

...=3279 ) sponsored by AChemS, corporations, and the National Institutes of Health. Highlighted topics include: Thermal taste: association with perception of oral sensations and food and beverage behavior Plasticity in expression of chemoreceptor genes in Drosophila melanogaster Recognizing Taste Sti...

Animals that seem identical may be completely different species

...sus. And as this advanced DNA technology is tested increasingly within various animal groups, it could, according to Christer Ersus, mean that our perception of the earth's biodiversity may need to be revised. "There could be ten times as many species in total, compared with what we previously thought," he...

Remembrance of things past influences how female field crickets select mates

...tractive songs responded more strongly to the 'average' male than those females that heard the attractive song, showing that prior experience affected perception of attractiveness. Next in their research, Bailey and Zuk plan to focus on male field crickets. "Can male crickets learn, too, about other males...

Male flower parts responsible for potent grapevine perfume: UBC research

...iversity of British Columbia scientists have traced the fragrant scent of grapevine flowers to pollen grains stored in the anthers, contrary to common perception that petals alone produce perfume. While studying grapes used to produce Cabernet Sauvignon from the Okanagan region of British Columbia, researche...

Differences among exercisers and nonexercisers during pregnancy

...s time on the computer, researchers conclude that exercisers are simply more likely to fit exercise into their day. Non-exercisers may suffer from a perception that they lack time to exercise, when they need to manage their time differently to fit more physical activity into their day. According to Dr. M...

Differences among exercisers and nonexercisers during pregnancy

...s time on the computer, researchers conclude that exercisers are simply more likely to fit exercise into their day. Non-exercisers may suffer from a perception that they lack time to exercise, when they need to manage their time differently to fit more physical activity into their day. According to Dr. M...

MIT: How you feel the world impacts how you see it

... motion aftereffect, occurs not only in our visual perception but also in our tactile perception, and that these... test the effect of visual motion on the subjects' perception of touch, the monitor displayed a pattern of horiz...MT or V5 long thought to play a major role in the perception of motion may also process tactile motion. Moore'...

Male flower parts responsible for potent grapevine perfume: UBC research

...iversity of British Columbia scientists have traced the fragrant scent of grapevine flowers to pollen grains stored in the anthers, contrary to common perception that petals alone produce perfume. While studying grapes used to produce Cabernet Sauvignon from the Okanagan region of British Columbia, researche...

Taste, odor intervention improves cancer therapy, according to Virginia Tech, Wake Forest study

..., such as decreased or lost taste acuity or metallic taste. Altered sensory perception causes psychological anxiety and malnutrition, and thus negatively impacts ...uch as breast or lung. The most prevalent taste alteration reported is the perception of a metallic or bitter taste, with red meat often cited as a cause. Anoth...

Musicians have biological advantage in identifying emotion in sound

...rk on the neurobiology underlying speech and music perception and learning-associated brain plasticity. Krau...says Ashley, who explores the link between emotion perception and musical experience. One of his recent studies ...ans is something we'd expect to translate into the perception of emotion in other settings," Strait says. Th...

Mental fatigue can affect physical endurance

...in both trials and was not a factor. The researchers speculate that the perception of effort occurs in the brain. Dr. Marcora said his team is considering two...reward compared to rats with no lesion. This area of the brain may be where perception of effort originates, Dr. Marcora said. Applying the results This r...

Researchers shed new light on connection between brain and loneliness

...ndations," they wrote. By studying brain mechanisms, researchers hope to gain new insights by examining mental activities surrounding consciousness, perception and thought through an understanding of how columns of neurons stacked next to each other form elementary circuits to function as a unit, they wrote. ...

Darwin's seminal impact on biology, anthropology, philosophy and psychology

...is a greater chance that Darwin will be taught in a philosophy class than Immanuel Kant. He produced a shock wave that transformed every aspect of our perception of the world and ourselves. It's a revolution greater than the Copernican revolution," says Bouchard who teaches a class on the impact of the theory o...

I feel your pain: Neural mechanisms of empathy

...ivity to pain (CIP) offer a unique opportunity to test this model of empathy by exploring how the lack of self-pain representation might influence the perception of others' pain," explains lead author Dr. Nicolas Danziger from the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology and Pain Center at the Pitie-Salpetriere i...

Exercise no danger for joints

...disease and diabetes, and for improving psychological well-being amongst an array of other benefits. In contrast, however, the lay press and community perception is also that exercise is potentially deleterious to one's joints, in particular those of the lower extremities. Researchers from Boston, USA, and A...

Feeling your words: Hearing with your face

...in an important way to our understanding of the relationship between speech perception and production. It shows that there is a broad, non-auditory basis for "hearing" and that speech perception has important neural links to the mechanisms of speech production. Deta...

Process can cut the cost of making cellulosic biofuels

...unds created when the stover goes through the AFEX process can improve the overall fermentation process," Lau added. "This is at odds with the general perception that these compounds are detrimental and should be removed." The research is published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Aca...

DREAM: 1 gene regulates pain, learning and memory

...REAM (downstream regulatory element antagonistic modulator). The gene's function was highly interesting: it obviously served as a key regulator in the perception of pain. Mice who lacked the gene showed clear signs of markedly reduced sensitivity to all kinds of pain, whether chronic or acute. Otherwise, the mi...

Research yields new clues to how we locate objects in space

... which allow us to locate objects in space. Direct perception occurs when we see, hear or feel an object; by dir...cts in space by accurately combining features from perception and visualization. The resulting spatial represen...ere people need to combine information from direct perception and visualization, and the authors used this techn...

Mothers pass on disease clues to offspring

...have discovered. The study provides the first evidence for a transgenerational effect on immune response based on environmental cues with maternal perception of disease risk in the immediate environment potentially determining offspring disease resistance and social dominance. The results are published in ...